York Delays Funds For Asbestos Removal

YORK — The Board of Supervisors tabled an appropriation for asbestos removal at Grafton-Bethel Elementary School on Thursday, citing a lack of budgetary information from the School Board.

The School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to request $300,700 for asbestos removal at Grafton-Bethel. It also asked that $29,300 be put in a reserve fund to pay for asbestos removal in two areas not included in the large contract.

County Administrator Daniel Stuck said information he received from Superintendent Judith Ball on Wednesday did not say how the School Board wants to pay for the asbestos removal.

Stuck also said the information from Ball mentions changes in the school system's current budget that have not yet been approved by the School Board. The School Board will consider a revised budget for fiscal year 1990 on Monday.

Supervisor Julia Jensen, the board's liaison to the school system, suggested that the matter be tabled until the supervisors' Feb. 1 meeting, and her fellow supervisors agreed.

Grafton-Bethel was closed in September after a parent discovered asbestos contamination in the school.

In other business:

* The board tabled a proposed 1 percent tax on the gross proceeds of short-term rental businesses. The tax, which would apply primarily to video rental businesses, would recover most of the $18,000 that will be lost because of a change in the business license tax charged such businesses, said Joseph Rigo, York's commissioner of the revenue.

The supervisors asked County Attorney William Hackworth to draft a tax proposal that would exclude businesses that receive little income from rentals.

* The board unanimously approved a rezoning at Whittaker's Mill, the 900-acre resort and corporate park planned near Williamsburg. The action changes 114 acres from residential to industrial zoning for the corporate park portion of the project.

* The board voted to spend $9,950 to plan renovations to a sewer pump station and parking area on Water Street in Yorktown.

* Frank Hall, resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, told the board his department is working as fast as it can to repair Old York-Hampton Highway. The road, which runs parallel to Route 17, recently suffered "pavement failure" and is almost impassable.